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The time Jeremy Hambly was banned from ‘Magic: The Gathering’

With Jeremy Hambly in the news because of his assault at the hands of Matt Loter the early morning of August 2, 2018, hours before the start of Gen Con, I thought it would be a good idea to check why Wizards of the Coast (WotC), the maker of Magic The Gathering, banned him for life. I’m glad I did because when WotC banned him on December 7, 2017, I criticized the ban. I’ve since learned I was wrong.

Hambly deserved the ban.

Christine Sprankle

I knew the ban was for harassing and bullying cosplayer Christine Sprankle, but I didn’t know the details. At the time, I thought the claims of harassment and bullying were overblown. I now know they were not. I never saw the video in which Hambly harassed Sprankle because YouTube removed it. He posted the video on 5 June 2017 and entitled it, “Playset Of Beta White Knights Prevent Rape Of MTG Cosplayer @cspranklerun.”

If you think the word “rape” along with a woman’s twitter handle is a bad idea for a video title, you would be right. Even though YouTube removed the video, an archived copy is available, something I didn’t know when this controversy first arose.

The video is a lot worse than what I expected.

What Jeremy Hambly said about Christine Sprankle

In the video, Hambly referred to Sprankle as a “serial virtue signaler” and “crying for patron dollars professional cosplayer.” This was in response to Sprankle complaining publicly on Twitter about a man who posted a message on her Facebook page stating her cosplay gives him an erection. Hambly stated he would react favorably if he received a similar comment from a man.

Hambly then proceeded to run down the list comments made in response to Sprankle’s tweet, calling everyone who supported her a cuck and/or white knight. He called one man a shitty father.

Hambly also accused everyone supporting Sprankle on Twitter of wanting to penetrate her.

Hambly said cosplay is lingerie and then proceeded to go over photos of Sprankle cosplaying and made lewd, sexual comments about each photo. He then told his viewers to go to her Twitter account and let her know how unattractive and unsexual she looks.

Jeremy Hambly is a raging hypocrite

He also seems to have a major issue with Sprankle having a Patreon account so her fans can send her donations. Hambly calls these people “fucking losers.” I find this strange considering he too has a Patreon account so his fans can send him donations. Why does he criticize Sprankle for doing the same thing he does? Because Hambly suffers from weapons-grade hypocrisy.

Sprankle posted the following on Twitter:

It has been a rough year. And I have blocked and not said anything about him because I wanted it to die but without a doubt MtGHeadquarters/UnsleevedMedia has made my life hell this whole year with his unnecessary videos/tweets about me and other members of Magic.

I am embarrassed I supported Jeremy Hambly

Watching the video Hambly made about Sprankle leaves me feeling embarrassed I originally supported him after Wizards of the Coast (WotC) gave him a lifetime ban. After watching the video removed by YouTube, I think WotC did the right thing. Hambly is a dishonest, toxic person. I say he’s dishonest because he was purposely spreading false information about the ban as soon as it happened.

Hambly said he never harassed Sprankle. That’s not true. WotC said actions taken in his social media accounts were in violation of WotC’s code of conduct. YouTube is part of social media. Hambly claimed in the above video to never agreeing to WotC’s code of conduct. That’s not true. If he had a Magic Online account, something he said he had before the ban, he had to check a box agreeing to adhere to the WotC code of conduct when he first created his account and then again each and every time the game was updated.

Hambly said he never harassed Sprankle, nor did he direct others to harass her. That’s not true. Anyone who watched the original video YouTube removed knows such claims are false.

Hambly harassed Sprankel.
Hambly directed others to harass Sprankel.

Hambly benefited greatly from YouTube removing his original video. Because it’s somewhat difficult for people to find, he’s able to lie and mislead people about the video’s content.

If I was WotC, I wouldn’t want him anywhere near my sanctioned events. I wouldn’t want Hambly to have anything to do with my game made for ages 13 and up.

4 thoughts on “The time Jeremy Hambly was banned from ‘Magic: The Gathering’”

It only took me a minute or so to find it. just type in (on Bing’s search engine) “why was Jeremy Hambly banned from magic the gathering” or you can go here to see ithttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ffr3fUbJ15E
Honestly, I watch his videos on his channel on the YouTube channel called “TheQuartering” quite a bit. Also, in fairness, I do not play MTG, or understand how to play MTG (or games like it), or understand any of the “in-game slang.” I guess, “in-game slang” would be a way to put it. I didn’t know what cosplaying was or that the MTG community looks down upon them (I’m not entirely sure if this last statement is true or not, but, that is the conclusion I got from the comments I saw). I could be very wrong or correct, though.
Anyways, the point that I wanted to make is that, while I knew he loved MTG and WotC and other games like that, I had never seen him act like he did on the link above. It seemed VERY out of character for him based on his YouTube channel that I watch. I was very surprised and honestly, a bit confused by it and just stunned at what he said and how he acted. I don’t know him personally, but, it looked like he was very irritated over something else that had maybe happened before the making of that video. I am just speculating, however, IDK, what I am trying to get at is that:
A. Out-of-character for what I have seen in his other videos.
and;
B. Maybe he was just having a bad day or something like that.
We have all said stupid things sometimes that we wish we could take back and I am sure that this is one of Jeremy’s. I feel for him, the internet is unforgiving and harsh. I also want to make clear that I AM NOT IN ANY WAY CONDONING THIS TYPE OF BEHAVIOR OR SPEECH IN ANY WAY, SHAPE OR FORM. So, please don’t cuss me out for trying to rationalize or figure out what happened that day in the video.
Thank you for reading my thoughts and insight on this matter. I was just curious about what happened to him getting kicked out of MTG and the Gen Con incident.

Creeped out by this.
I only just recently discovered his youtube videos and watched them on a casual basis.
Seemed fine.
Then he posted a very defensive video about how the Daily Dot had written a “hack” article about him.
The topic took me completely by surprise and, give the way he framed it on his video, he sounded like the aggrieved party.
I might not have done anything about it but then I noticed the type of supportive comments he was attracting.
They were almost all from arseholes.
He might be smart enough to make an effort to maintain a neutral public image but his supporters are not. They are unfiltered.

My general rule is that results matter.
If you build something and that place attracts a stream of lowlifes, then you are responsible for that.

Tipped off by the commentary, I did a bit of googling and discovered that this guy has a track record.